Tejpaul Bhatia: Multi-platform Storytelling
Tejpaul Bhatia is the founder of Tej Media Networks, Inc., a production studio that specializes in multi-platform story-telling. Tejpaul was most recently a senior manager of international business strategy for ESPN New Media. Prior to ESPN, Tejpaul co-founded Media Strategy Partners, LLC, a media asset management consulting company that continues to serve US broadcasters.
SSM: The shift in media from long-form to short-form, on-screen to integration online, has ignited the conversation on the effect of multiplatform technology on storytelling. Has multiplatform storytelling made the storyteller’s job harder?
Tejpaul Bhatia: Multi-platform story-telling requires story-teller’s to think on multiple levels and in multiple dimensions. The audience is no longer in one place and no longer on a single device for a scheduled period of time. These additional layers and moving parts require quite a bit of effort on the story-teller’s part. The story-teller is no longer just a writer. She is a writer, a producer, an architect, a metadata specialist, a marketing exec, a business person, and a user experience professional.However, the best stories require this much effort any way. We live in a world where a lot of the content presented to us by the big media companies is “Crap.” There is a reason so many horror movies come out every year: they are a good business. That doesn’t mean they are good art. When the story-teller puts in the effort and energy to tell a good story, the audience feels that hard work through a very connected experience. Despite the bells and whistles of multi-platform story-telling, the main value is still good old-fasioned story-telling.
SSM: Will the format of the story change with multiplatform delivery?
TB: New forms of delivery alone won’t change story format. A new creative process that exploits end user devices and is in line with consumer behavior will eventually create new innovative story structures. For example, if you put “Lost” on an iPod or on a website, the delivery is very different from the delivery to television. The format however is exactly the same, only with a much poorer user experience. If, on the other hand, “Lost” were created with the understanding that aspects of the show will appear on a two-inch screen or on a highly interactive website, the format might start to evolve. Also, if producers and creators understand that if a user gets “Lost” on an iPod, they are probably on the go or if a user watches “Lost” online, they might be in the office, then creators might make different choices based on the consumer’s viewing context.
SSM: How much of successful multiplatform storytelling is creative ability vs. technical know-how?
TB: It is a little of both. Our industry and human nature likes to categorize and pigeon-hole people into easy to understand stereo-types: the creative, the techie, the marketing guy, etc. For multi-platform story-telling to be successful, not only do you need to have a cross-disciplinary team from day zero, you also need to have each member of the team understand all aspects of the creative, technical and business process.
SSM: What are a few core insights that advertisers/marketers should take in consideration when creating multi-platform stories for their brands?
TB: Big Media Priorities Advertisers and marketers need to realize that there is a big priority discrepancy right now between consumers and traditional media. That discrepancy lies in the fact that consumers pay a lot of money each month for television, broadband and wireless services and use devices on all three platforms for entertainment and utility. The cable/telco/satellite companies have all picked up on this and are all offering bundled triple-play services to super serve their customers. Traditional media however is several steps behind because most of the economic incentive for large media companies is on television. Several television companies have dual revenue streams (affiliate fees and advertising sales) to support their core television businesses that bring in billions of dollars every year. Their online divisions earn fractions of a percent of the television revenue. This results in a serious priority discrepancy internally at these companies, despite the press releases you may read.
Big media companies aren’t justifying aggressive investment in new media content right now. New media companies on the other hand can’t afford to invest in quality content, hence the onslaught of user generated content. Basically, the traditional vehicles that marketers used to get messages to consumers are no longer perfectly lined with consumer behaviour. Right now to reach a customer on all possible entertainment touch points (television, VOD, iTV, broadband, mobile, video games, portable media device, etc) there is no turn-key solution. Marketers need to understand consumer behaviour, new media distribution, consumer entertainment devices, and they need to have the right partners for multi-platform strategy, execution and follow-through.
Perpetual Marketing With all the multiple platforms available to get a message across these days, advertisers and marketers need to understand that marketing is no longer a necessary expense center. Marketing can actually be a profit center for an organization. The key is to think of marketing as content and content as marketing. By utilizing multi-platform story-telling techniques, story-tellers and marketers can use broadband and mobile campaigns to build up awareness for a product while also entertaining audiences. These online and mobile campaigns can also be used to generate sponsorship and advertising revenue from unexpected sources.
